This voice cannot be silenced
With her powerful choral pieces, the internationally renowned Polish theatre director Marta Górnicka gives a voice to those who are often overlooked in political discourse. Górnicka, a graduate of the Theater Academy and the Academy of Music in Warsaw, founded the «Chorus of Women» in 2010 with 25 women of different ages and professions. Success came quickly: in the same year, she debuted with «Hier spricht der Chor», which addressed the frustration with clichéd images of women in Western consumer society and the Christian-religious ideal of femininity. This was followed a year later by «MAGNIFICAT», which criticised the position of women in strictly Catholic Polish society. In 2014, Górnicka brought together 60 Jewish and Arab mothers, Israeli soldiers, children and dancers in «Mother Courage will not remain silent». In 2017, she explored the rise of nationalism in Europe in «Hymn to Love». In her latest performance «Mothers. A Song for Wartime», the voices of women and children from Ukraine and Belarus take center stage. Marta Górnicka spoke to curator Maria Rößler about the piece, which will be performed at the Zürcher Theater Spektakel in August.
The Zürcher Theater Spektakel 2024 will open with «Mothers. A Song for Wartime», your latest theatre production which you created with a chorus of 21 women from Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine. Many of these women had to flee their homes for political reasons, especially due to Russia's war against Ukraine. How did this collaboration come about?
Firstly, I want to express my gratitude for this invitation and the great honour of opening this festival.
It all began when I took a break from work and went to Poland. It was shortly after Russia's brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I arrived in Warsaw feeling a strong desire to contribute and help in some way, though I was unsure of how. I reached out to the Freedom Foundation and offered to work for them. They introduced me to a group of women aged 8 to 71. Many of them were Belarusians who had endured significant hardships, including political persecution. And there were Ukrainian women who had suffered from bombings and war. Soon, it became clear that the most impactful thing we could do together was to work with chorus tools and share the stories. At that moment, I didn't feel like a theatre director; I felt more like a social worker. We initiated a chorus as a means of connection, utilising body and voice as tools for gathering and fostering unity.
For the score of the performance, you chose to work with a mix of traditional songs, Ukrainian nursery rhymes and incantations. What meaning do these old songs take on in your piece and in the context of the current events in Ukraine?
When I was in Warsaw, I worked with Ukrainian ethnomusicologists in search of what the war is unable to touch – the tradition of the living voice and Ukrainian singing. I developed a profound fascination with Ukrainian music culture, you know. So, I delved into old songs, children's games, and poems. It was truly an amazing experience, and I brought all this material to our workshops with the group. We began sharing Ukrainian culture with Belarusians and quickly realised that the material is remarkably similar in both cultures. It is music that they learned from their grandmothers, from their mothers – music that is much older and bigger than they are. From the very beginning, I was searching for what is deeply nourishing in Ukrainian songs. It was very important for me to start with something that opposes war and annihilation. A source of power that works in opposition to war. The material paradoxically has nothing to do with war at all; it comes from a practice of love and traditions that evoke rebirth. The song material works like a ritual and a celebration of life.
As always in your work, the chorus not only sings but also recites passages of text.
Yes, I always work with an amalgam of different texts from various sources, without differentiating between high or low literature. I mix everything together. We manipulate rhetoric clichés or different genres of texts to create a synthesis. The reason is that, although my work is deeply connected with language, I always approach it with skepticism. I don't believe in language as an absolute. In my performances, what is important is the way in which the text is spoken, sung, or placed within the whole context.
You are regarded as the re-discoverer and re-initiator of chorus theatre in Europe. And you have been working on this powerful form of theatre for more than a decade now. The chorus – in your case, it's often a women's chorus – is the sole collective protagonist of your productions. How did it all begin? Where does your interest in the choral form come from?
Around 15 years ago, I embarked on this journey at the Theatre Institute in Warsaw – an institution focused not solely on theatre itself but on the intersection of theatre and research. This experimental beginning laid the groundwork for my vision to reintroduce choruses and women's voices onto the stage, particularly in Poland, where women were still fighting for their full rights. The exploration of chorus and women's voices emerged from a historical context where theatre was predominantly shaped by men. In the ancient history of theatre, women and slaves were marginalised or excluded. From the outset, I knew I wanted to prioritise women, envisioning a new form of chorus theatre.
And how did you go about realising this idea?
It was a collaborative journey which involved rediscovering the fundamentals – texts, language, spaces, voices. We had to seek a language that is raw and pure, one that resonates deeply with our collective experiences and allowed us to connect profoundly with our audience. This process also involved creating new spaces, librettos, and training methods that empowered performers to navigate the complexities of reality. I had to invent new kinds of training for the body and voice that help women discover their own power and create a presence on stage. In our kind of theatre, form and content are always interconnected. I firmly believe that the collective power of chorus theatre must confront and engage with the harsh realities of our world. If we aim to respond to monstrous realities, we need a strong chorus composed of individual voices that can act as partners and protagonists. The chorus serves as a meeting ground but also as a platform for transgenerational and transdisciplinary dialogue.
«Mothers. A Song for Wartime» stands in a line with other theatre works of yours, which are inspired by the themes of «mothers» and «motherhood». In your piece, we encounter women of different generations and backgrounds who raise their voices. What does this collective body express in response to neo-conservative, patriarchal politics?
In the tradition of ancient drama and chorus, the chorus of mothers reacted to war and death in two ways: they either became avengers and killed their enemies, or they became weepers. There is this very old tradition of lamentation in theatre. In our piece «Mothers», we are looking for a new way. A third way. The war in Ukraine brings a new paradigm of women at war. Women are the protagonists of this war. They bring their own stories and their own experiences of war to the stage. They are war survivors. It is very important for me to use exactly the word «survivors» – not victims, which is still dominant in the official narrative, unfortunately.
«Mothers» – is a body that denies patriarchal politics and opposes it. As it says in the play: «We are fed up with our body being used as a machine to produce more soldiers for war. The role of mothers who serve war with their bodies is not enough for us. / The role of weepers over bones no longer suits us.»
One of the most important functions of the chorus for me is to expose what is hidden, the monstrous aspects, and to reveal the social and subconscious mechanisms that govern societies. One of these mechanisms is the unending and unchanging violence against women and civilians. Perhaps we can take action against this when we are fully aware of patterns, challenge the clichés of war and strive to reclaim the image of motherhood by referring to the new paradigm of women brought to us in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
I want to acknowledge that I have always realised my work with the ongoing support of friends and partners. Without them, I would not have been able to sustain my productions. My chorus theatre always directly reacted to the brutality of reality, particularly the socio-political environment. When the radical right-wing party took power in Poland, for example, I staged the performance «Constitution for the Chorus of Poles» with 50 individuals of different professions, ages, and political affiliations. This project as well as my theatre production «Hymn to Love», which was also presented at the Zürcher Theater Spektakel in 2018, were met with resistance and ended up on a blacklist in Poland. Soon all my work with the women's chorus was blacklisted and I could no longer produce in Poland. Consequently, I moved to Berlin, establishing the Political Voice Institute, a social lab experimenting with various choral forms. To continue my work, I relied on the support of producing venues outside of Poland such as the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin.
However, the situation changed after the national elections in 2023, marking the end of right-wing extremist governmental politics and allowing for more freedom of cultural expression in Poland. I believe this marks a new era of freedom and opportunity for independent theatre work and experimental art. Before the elections, even rehearsing in Warsaw was difficult. Thanks to the assistance from the Polish Ministry of Culture, we are now enabled to travel more freely with our performances. This has been a significant relief for us.
As you are touring with «Mothers. A Song for Wartime» through various countries in Europe, you encounter audiences in diverse locations and contexts. What kinds of responses have you received from audiences so far? And what are your hopes for the meeting of the women’s chorus with the Zurich audience this August?
The reception has been incredible and emotional, often evoking tears... The world premiere at the Powszechny Theater in Warsaw, Le Maillon in Strasbourg, and the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin were profoundly moving experiences for us. We received standing ovations after each show and many heartfelt reactions from the audience. We had similar experiences recently at Theater Lliure in Barcelona and the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.
The war in Ukraine may no longer dominate headlines and people are fatigued of the news of violence and brutality. We aim to be the voice of this war. When images of war fade, we want to be the voice that keeps those images alive. «Mothers» is a tribute to the tradition of Ukrainian singing, a living voice that penetrates and moves. This singing is a space that cannot be co-opted, and this voice, despite everything, cannot be silenced.
Currently, we are in the midst of a European tour. In August, we will be in Zurich. We invite you to come and experience «Mothers» with us!
Credits
Interview: Maria Rößler
Photos: Bartek Warzecha